Privacy

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Privacy has become one of the defining issue of the Information Age. CIS has received national recognition for its interdisciplinary and multi-angle examination of privacy, particularly as it relates to emerging technology.

Aleecia M. McDonald's research focuses on the public policy issues of Internet privacy, and includes user expectations for Do Not Track, behavioral economics and mental models of privacy, and the efficacy of industry self regulation. She co-chaired, and remains active in, the WC3’s Tracking Protection Working Group, an ongoing effort to establish international standards for a Do Not Track mechanism that users can enable to request enhanced privacy online. Read more » about Aleecia McDonald

Jennifer Granick is the Director of Civil Liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. Jennifer returns to Stanford after working with the internet boutique firm of Zwillgen PLLC. Before that, she was the Civil Liberties Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Jennifer practices, speaks and writes about computer crime and security, electronic surveillance, consumer privacy, data protection, copyright, trademark and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Read more » about Jennifer Granick

Ryan Calo is an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law and a former research director at CIS. A nationally recognized expert in law and emerging technology, Ryan's work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Wired Magazine, and other news outlets. Ryan serves on several advisory committees, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Future of Privacy Forum. Read more » about Ryan Calo

Jonathan Mayer is a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at Stanford University, where he received his J.D. in 2013. He was named one of the Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2014, for his work on technology security and privacy. Jonathan's research and commentary frequently appears in national publications, and he has contributed to federal and state law enforcement actions. Read more » about Jonathan Mayer

Yesterday, news emerged (or was officially leaked) that the President will announce an initiative designed to bolster American Internet security: the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center. Based on the post-9/11 designed National Counterterrorism Center (CTC), this new organization purportedly will serve as an 'intelligence fusion center' within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and work with the private sector in developing and sharing information and analysis related Internet security threats, vulnerabilities, trends, and situational awareness. Read more » about Information sharing to the cyber-rescue, again!

A recent Wall Street Journalarticle revealed an ongoing DEA program designed to use automated license plate readers to build a real-time database of vehicle movement throughout the United States. This database would also store this data, giving government agencies the ability to retroactively track the movements of millions of Americans. As we've seen with similar programs, the scope of the effort will inevitably begin to creep. Read more » about When Algorithmic Surveillance Becomes Structural Surveillance

Among the 400 gigabytes of internal documents belonging to surveillance firm Hacking Team that were released online this week are details of the company's dealings with some of the most oppressive governments in the world. The revelations, which have generated alarm among privacy, security, and human rights advocates, have also fueled debate around the esoteric but important topic of government controls on the export of powerful software that can secretly infiltrate and seize control of targeted computers.

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""Data about reproductive health is very sensitive, but there are situations where maybe you want someone to know that," said Harlan Yu, principal at Upturn, a technology consulting firm. "You might want your doctor or researchers to know that. But in other situations you might not want drug companies or insurance companies to have that information."Read more » about Apple wants to know if you use protection

""Seeing the video tape of someone having sex is very different from journalists writing about it," Danielle Citron, author of the book Hate Crimes in Cyberspace, told Mashable. If Gawker successfully argues that publishing the video was necessary, then Citron says the "end implication" is that "there's no privacy in anything, which I don't think we're prepared as a society to say."Read more » about Posting Hulk Hogan's sex tape isn't revenge porn, but is it legal?

"“There’s no accountability, and in an anything-goes environment, there are no social norms on how to slow down harassing speech,” says Danielle Citron, a law professor at the University of Maryland and the author of Hate Crimes in Cyberspace.

Citron, at least, thinks these platforms and others have not yet used what she calls their “enormous power” to shield vulnerable communities. Real censorship, she points out, would take the form of a government ban of content on all outlets, which is the opposite of what’s happening in the wake of Reddit’s new bans."Read more » about No Matter What Reddit Does, It’s Going to Alienate People

Most Internet users are familiar with trolling—aggressive, foul-mouthed posts designed to elicit angry responses in a site’s comments. Less familiar but far more serious is the way some use networked technologies to target real people, subjecting them, by name and address, to vicious, often terrifying, online abuse. In an in-depth investigation of a problem that is too often trivialized by lawmakers and the media, Danielle Keats Citron exposes the startling extent of personal cyber-attacks and proposes practical, lawful ways to prevent and punish online harassment. Read more » about Hate Crimes in Cyberspace

Last week, health insurance giant Anthem revealed that the personal information of as many as 80 million customers was stolen by hackers. This news came just days before President Obama announced the creation of a new agency to analyze and counter cyber threats. In this hour, we look at Obama’s cybersecurity agenda, and the cyber-security challenges that face users in the coming year. Read more » about Cyber Security and a New Government Agency

CIS Affiliate Scholar David Levine interviews Prof. Stephanie Pell of the Army Cyber Institute and Chris Soghoian of the American Civil Liberties Union on StingRay and their newly-published Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy article entitled Your Secret Stingray’s No Secret Anymore: The Vanishing Government Monopoly over Cell Phone Surveillance and Its Impact on National Security and Consumer Privacy. Read more » about Prof. Stephanie Pell and Chris Soghoian - Hearsay Culture Show #229 - KZSU-FM

A growing number of female writers and journalists are being subjected to intense harassment online, often in response to seemingly mundane posts or articles. Even women who aren't professional writers or bloggers experience a kind of harassment online that is more graphic and violent in nature then the kind of trolling done to men.